: while being born or produced
Well, it's going to a be clusterf--- of a day, trying to figure out what we're going to do w/Gabriel in the hours when he gets out of school and Julia and I are at work. Damn!
Julia, busy as a bee, has a lot going on this fall:
- conferences in Chicago and Durham, possibly Seattle
- a possible defense of her dissertation at OSU
- maybe a job interview or two
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More Reviews
Film:
The Thing (2011), a remake of John Carpenter's murky, overrated 1982 picture (itself a re-do of 1951's The Thing From Another Planet) has the following: eviscerations; scenes in which the gooey alien creature infests characters' mouths and eyes; gore; some decent squares; a good stand-in for Antarctica (British Columbia); a cast that, as required, demonstrate little personality. I enjoyed it.
Dream House (2011), to judge by the critical consensus, was one of the worst films in recent memory - especially one with such a talented cast (Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts) and a name director (My Left Foot's Jim Sheridan). I would argue that it's not that bad. Craig is a book editor who quits his job to spend more time with his wife (Weisz) and kids in their new home - a residence that, unbeknownst to them, formerly housed a killer. There's a Big Twist halfway through; how much you do or don't believe it will determine your enjoyment of the rest of the picture. Narratively, I thought it held together fairly well. Well-shot by Caleb Deschanel.
The low-budgeted Elevator (2011) has a killer premise: Nine strangers, on their way to a party on the top floor, get stuck in an elevator. One of them is carrying a bomb. Writer Marc Rosenberg and director Stig Svendsen make the most of the confined space. It's not always believable, to be sure, but it's a fat-free, enjoyable ride. It's bloody and tense. I liked how we never knew when exactly the bomb, already triggered, would go off.
Book:
Pat Conroy's My Reading Life (2010) is a memoir of his lifelong relationship with books. Conroy's chapters in which he speaks of his influences (James Dickey, Thomas Wolfe), a high school teacher who was a mentor-like figure, his first job on Daufuskie Island, or a bookstore owner in Atlanta he befriended are the best - they're telling, poignant, impactful. The bad news is that almost every other chapter, in which he pontificates windily and fatuously on books, his childhood, what he requires literature to do for him, is a slog. I wanted more autobiography, less of the overwritten, grandiose bullshit.
Patricia Highsmith's The Blunderer (1954) is mmm-mmm good. It's a classic Highsmith premise: Walter, a henpecked man, wants to kill his nagging, stifling wife. When she ends up dead, all the evidence - including the absurd interest he displayed in a man who may have killed his wife in a similar manner - points to him, despite the fact that he didn't do it! Walter Stackhouse, the suspect, is a typical Highsmith character, an ordinary man plodding through an ordinary world that has suddenly gone blandly sinister and claustrophobic. It's a tight, well-worked plot, with a great supporting villain (a trim, malicious policeman merrily brutal and relentless), undone perhaps only by a characteristically clipped, abrupt ending.
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The NFL season is almost here. Each Friday, I'll give my Weekly Picks. But I'm not done with my lists either: Here's one for today:
Best Linebackers of My Lifetime:
1) Ray Lewis
2) Junior Seau
3) Derrick Thomas
4) Chris Spielman
5) Patrick Willis
6) Greg Lloyd/Kevin Greene
7) Derrick Brooks
8) Bill Romanowski
9) Brian Urlacher
10) DeMarcus Ware
11) Ken Norton
12) James Harrison
13) Zach Thomas
14) Pat Swilling
15) Karl Mecklenburg
Tomorrow, I'll give my overall season predictions and a prediction for the opener tomorrow night in the Meadowlands.
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A performance today for my list of the 500 Greatest Performances of All Time:
Tom Hanks
as Forrest Gump in Forrest Gump (1994)
An easy pick. Hanks (in his second Oscar-winning role) takes a character that could easy become a cloying caricature and makes him into a figure for the ages. Everyone loves Forrest Gump. Hanks gives Forrest a distinct look and sound and a body language all his own. Despite Forrest's limited intelligence, Hanks never plays Gump as stupid - just someone who moves through life at his own measured, unique pace. Hanks is funny and witty and though you never once think of Hanks' other roles (Gump is a far cry from characters Hanks played in Philadelphia or, say, Splash), the actor's beloved, special charisma and charm carries the day.
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Images:
http://cinemashock.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/forrest-gump.jpg
http://images.vogue.it/imgs/galleries/peole-are-talking-about/art-photo-design/015038/dream-house-
http://images.indiebound.com/446/322/9780393322446.jpg
http://themeatlockersports.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/ray-lewis-jpeg.jpg
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